the Meek's inheriting the Earth; And Secondly fhew, That they do fo inherit it.

AND First, by their inheriting the Earth, I fuppofe, cannot be meant, that they fhall have large Portions of it, that they fhall raise great Eftates, that they fhall take Root, and fpread, and, as the Prophet expreffes it, Ifa. 5. joyn house to houfe, and lay field to field. This, I fuppofe, cannot be meant:

I. BECAUSE this is not true: The Meek do not inherit the Earth according to this Senfe.

A

II. BECAUSE if they did, this would not be a proper Ground for their being pronounced Blessed.

AND First, This Senfe is not true; the Meek do not thus inherit the Earth. We rather find that the World is made for the Bold and the Violent, for the Rough-fpirited and Turbulent, for the Furious and Boifterous; and that they have commonly the greatest Share of it, who deferve the leaft. And therefore we commonly urge this as one Argument against the Goodness of Riches, That they frequently fall to the Lot of the worst Men. And therefore, fays the Pfal mift, Pfal. 74. Lo, these are the ungodly, these profper in the world, and thefe have riches in poffeffion: While, in the mean time, the Meek are oppreffed and devoured by thefe Beafts of Prey; and are fo far from inheriting the Earth, that it is as much as many of them can do to live upon it, and more than fome of them can do to find Room under it.

Вит

BuT Secondly, Suppose they did thus inherit the Earth, by having great Portions of it, yet this would not be a proper Ground for their being pronounced Bleffed: For, Are Clods of Earth a fuitable Good for Man? Or, Is Happiness to be measured by the Acre? Do we find that rich Men are fo very much happier than others? Or, Do we think that the Earth has Mines of Happiness, as it has of Gold? But, whatever we think, Is it at all probable, that our. Bleffed Lord, who himself made choice of Poverty, who but in a Line or two before pronounced the Poor bleffed, who tells us that his own Kingdom was not of this World, who bids us beware of Covetoufness, and warns us of the great Danger of Riches, by telling us how hard it is for one that has them to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; who dehorts us from laying up Treasures on Earth, and who, laftly, recommends to his Difciples nothing more than the Contempt of the World, by affuring them, that the Life of Man does not confift in the Abundance of Things which he poffeffes: I fay, Is it imaginable that our Lord, after all this, fhould therefore pronounce the meek Man bleffed, for having great Poffeffions?

THIS therefore cannot be the Thing meant by the Meek's inheriting the Earth; which I take, rather to fignifie the Manner of Poffeffing, than the Greatness of their Poffeffions; and to import thus much, That the Meek fhall enjoy what they have, be it little or great, with Comfort,

and

and Satisfaction, and Tranquility of Mind whereas thofe of a contrary Difpofition, tho' they may possess a great deal, may yet be truly faid to enjoy little or nothing. And this feems to be the Senfe of the Pfalmift, when, in Words directly parallel to thefe of our Lord, he fays, The meek-fpirited ball poffefs the earth, and shath be refreshed in the multitude of peace, Pfal. 34. 11. That is, They fhall have Comfort and Pleasure, Peace and Content, with whatever they have; which, how little foever, fhall yet carry a true Relifh, and yield more real Satisfaction to them, than the otherwife-affected can reap from their ample Revenues. According to what the Pfalmift, in the fame place, immediately fubjoins, Pfal. 34 16. A fmall thing that the righteous has, is better than great riches of the ungodly.

THIS I take to be the Senfe and Meaning of this Beatitude. As to the Truth and Reality of it, there is this double Security for it; the Natural Tendency of the Vertue of Meekness, and the Bleffing of God upon it. As to its Natural Tendency, Meeknefs is a very decent, amiable and winning thing; and, accordingly, the Apoftle calls it, The ornament of a meek and quiet fpirit. And by this, in all probability, the meek Man will fweeten and indear even his very Enemies to him, and fo gain himself Peace without by his quiet and inoffenfive Behaviour. But however this be, yet he is fure to have Peace within, with himself, and with God. And having this, he is in a very fit Condition F

of

of Mind to enjoy himself, and to take Comfort. in what he poffeffes.

WHICH he will be farther enabled to do, Secondly, by the Bleffing of God. And this again the Pfalmift takes notice of, fome few Verfes after the fore-cited ones: Verf. 22. Such as are bleffed of the Lord fball poffefs the land, fays he; implying, that as the Meek, whom he just before fpoke of, fhould poffefs the Earth, fo it is through a fpecial Bleffing of God that they fhould do fo. And these are two great Securities for a Life of Comfort, and Self-Enjoyment; the Peace of a fedate Spirit within, and the Bleffing of God without. And both these the meek Man has, whom therefore we may venture to pronounce Bleffed; and therefore Bleffed, because he shall thus inherit the Earth: Which yet fhall be but a Type and Pledge of his future Inheritance with the Saints in Light.

DISCOURSE the Fourth.

MATTH. V. Ver. vi.

Bleffed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

T

HO' God has provided Entertainment for all the Appetites which he has made, yet there are but two Appetites of Man which he intends to gratifie to the heighth, and to blefs with a full and

lafting

lafting Satisfaction; and thofe are, the Defire of being happy, and the Defire of being good. There are fome Appetites of Man which are never fatisfied; for, fays the Wife Man, Eccl. 1.8. The eye is not fatisfied with feeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Seeing and Hearing are the most refined of all the Senfes; and thofe Appetites which are moft fpiritual and refined, and come nearest to the Elevations of the Intellectual Nature, are always hardeft to be fatisfied: And the Intellectual Nature it felf, when it is more raised and elevated, as in the State of Separation, will have a more enlarged Appetite, and a fharper Edge of Defire, and fo will be harder to be fatisfied than it is now. Which, by the way, I take to be the Reason why thofe Senfual Spirits, which now feel no great Uneafiness from the Absence of the Supreme Good, will, notwithftanding, hereafter be extreamly miferable, in being exiled from his Beatifick Prefence. As for the groffer Appetites of the Animal Nature, fuch as Hunger, Thirst, and the like; these, indeed, have this Advantage above the Finer, that they may be fatisfied for fome time, and (fuch is the Brutishness of Man) are too often over-charged. But then they will return again in certain Periods, like the Tide, and be as importunate as ever for new Supplies; and, as our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria, Joh. 4. 13. Whosoever drinks of this Water ball thirst again. The Appetite may be laid afleep for a while, but it will infallibly awake again into its former Eagerness.

F 2

Bur